HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Enomoto Leads Mission Bay to Win

Mission Bay baseball player Joe Enomoto is only a sophomore, but because of his name, Coach Dennis Pugh is expecting good things this year. At Mission Bay, the name Enomoto means you’re a standout, a leader, a game-breaker. Enomoto’s brothers were. Now it’s Joe’s turn.

Pugh bats him ninth and recently moved him from shortstop to second base to take off some pressure, but Enomoto still feels pressure to produce for Buccaneers.

And Tuesday he produced, twice singling with two strikes to give Mission Bay leads and the eventual winning run in its 4-3 City Western League victory at La Jolla.

“It’s a game we had to win,” said Enomoto, a .333 hitter whose two-out single in the top of the seventh inning drove home John Pelligren with the game winner. “We made some mistakes but we won the game, which is the most important thing. We’ll go over the mistakes tomorrow in practice.”

It was a sloppy game that included seven errors and several mental miscues, including Enomoto getting caught off third base in the fifth inning when the Bucs broke a 1-1 tie. His RBI-single that inning made it 3-1. Mission Bay is 12-4, 2-1 in league; La Jolla is 9-7, 0-2. But the Bucs, who were league champs six years in a row before 1990 and reached the section 2-A final last year, have a knack for winning close games. And an Enomoto has usually played a key role.

Brothers Tony, now a third baseman and San Diego State, and Jason, a second baseman at San Diego Mesa College, were cornerstone players on previous Mission Bay teams.

“He’s going to be a real good player,” Pugh said of Joe Enomoto, who started watching his brothers play for Pugh at age 9. “He’s a good kid and he comes from quite a family. By the time he gets out I will have had Enomotos in the program for nine years.”

After a two-run home run by La Jolla’s John Zuanich tied the score, 3-3, in the bottom of the fifth, Enomoto found himself in another crucial spot in the seventh: down 1-2 in the count to Viking starter David Mullin with two outs and Pelligren at second. Mullin delivered a fastball on the outside corner that Enomoto--trying to make contact--lined softly over shortstop Ames Crawford’s head and Pelligren scored.

Enomoto is not the only sophomore producing for the Bucs. Catcher Shane Stoberg, hitting .500, scored on Eric Serrano’s triple in the fifth before Enomoto singled in Serrano. Right-hander Jeff Dufek, before yielding the home run to Zuanich, had a 0.64 earned run average. All are sophomores. Junior right-hander Jason Martin (3-0, 2 saves), struck out three in the final two innings, including Zuanich to end the game, getting the win in relief.

“We had some bad breaks, Martin did a good job and with Enomoto, it’s in the genes,” La Jolla Coach Bob Allen shrugged, losing his second league game by an identical score. “We’ve had a lot of tough luck lately, but we’ll keep fighting and scratching.”